PenguinsDance

Me Too!!! :woohoo: The crowd's reaction at the end wasn't as favorable though. Everytime I called her # the call went through. I hope that's not a bad sign. I re-dialed until my fingers got tired. :giggle:

Yeah Swanee, I also think Katharine did the best job. She's been my Fav since her first appearance! Love her singing and stage presence. She rocks! She performed best from the beginning of the auditions!

RJ you hear that the guy who forgot it was on is going to post an article.

I can't wait for the insights. :cocky:

Have you gotten up yet RJ?

It's coming!

Yes, I've gotten up and am looking forward to this article. Although if he thinks like me, then this is a horrible bunch with a few exceptions. And the judges say this is the best group so far. PUH-LEEZE.

So, where do I begin? American Idol has now moved to the viewer voting. Now we get to start picking our favorites (and thus pushing those we don't like off). Having watched both the men and the women I'm finding it hard to decide which sex I like better (as far as singing goes of course). So as promised, here are my notes or my 'article' if you will.

We start off with Mandisa - 29This is the one Simon made cry with his remark about needing a bigger stage. Rude comments aside, she decided to buck up and put on her best performance. In what was a surprise for me, she decided to sing a song from Heart. I'm a 80's fan, and have always liked Heart, but would Mandisa be able to pull this off? More of a rocking song than a soul song, I was thinking how hard this was gong to be. In the end she did a terrifice job. Top notch! As Paula pointed out, Carrie Underwood sang a song from Heart last year and we all know Carrie went on to win the entire show. A sign of things to come? Well, that remains to be seen. For the time being, she's got my vote. I give her 4 stars for her song.

Kellie Pickler - 19Quite the hard-luck story. Or so it might seem at first. But out of hardship comes creativity, right? For me, the first strike against her was her choice of song. I've never been a big country person, but I'm not the kind to judge a person or their song by the type it is. How is the song sung? To be honest, I was fairly unimpressed with the overall performance. There were several missed notes, and was flat in other areas. I felt bad for her, I've yet to hear her sing something to wow me. 3 stars.

Becky O'Donohue - 25One part of a set of twins, Becky decided to start off with a rendition of 'Because the Night'. Just before she started to sing, I wasn't sure if the audience should clap and cheer for her. (the live version is one I'm very familiar with). One thing about Becky for me, I've always liked her fashion sense, not sure why. And she seems to draw me in with her eyes as she sings. (Reminds me of my boyhood crush on Sussanna Hoffs). As much as I want Becky to keep going, I was not very impressed with her rendition. I have to agree with Simon, 'visually she's a 10 her voice is more a 6'. Personally, I'd give her voice more than a 6, but for tonight she didn't impress me much. I give her song 3 stars, her looks get a full 4 though. oO(touch me now indeed)

Ayla Brown - 17Torn between basketball and singing, Ayla is on American Idol to give her singing a try. During one of her original auditons Simon said she was very robotic. Simon seemed to retract that a bit tongiht, I'm a bit hesitant to do so. She attepted to sing 'Reflection' but I ended up having to go back to recall what she sang because for me this time she was very forgetable. Nice Karaoke renditon, American Idol rendition? Nah. I'll be looking for her upcoming basketball career. I'll give her three out of four basketballs.

Paris Bennett - 17Initially I was not a big Paris fan. I'm not saying I'm ready to jump on board the train yet, but I did like her rendition of Midnight Train to Georgia. The original songs is really great, and when I really like a song, I know when someone just trashes it. Paris did the song some credit, and put on a good show to boot. She was really having fun with the song, if she keeps the steam rolling she'll make it to the final 6. I oddly enough have to agree with Simon, she's got a likability factor. 3 1/2 stars. Nice job.

Stevie Scott - 19She's always been somewhat different for the fact that she loves opera and it seems to show in her singing, even the pop songs. Her rendition of over the rainbow in Hollywood was awful, so perhaps that was why she went with 'To Where You Are', an opera song - trying to get back to her musical roots? Originally I was on the fence of how many stars to give her, upon relistening to her performance I reluctantly had to drop it. There were various parts in the song that I had a hard time listening to. Randy had a good point, I can see how he might want to daydream during the song. Once again, I have to agree with Simon. True he is a bit harsh during his criticism, but Stevie you don't have to cry and tell them that you will 'bring it'. This is American Idol, you have to have 'brought it'. If you didn't bring it yet, why bother being her now? 2 1/2 stars.

Brenna Gethers - 25First off, let me say I love the song "You are the Sunshine" by Stevie Wonder. What a great pick to sing. Considering this is American Idol, as Stevie just learned, surely she'd do this song justice. The song is such a great song, how could you get it wrong? Monotone voice, flat singing and missed notes, that' how. Brenna loves to work the crowd, and you can tell she loves to sing, but I was NOT very impressed with this, not at all! Randy tells her she stsill needs to bring her attitude. However, he was refering to her songs and her singing. She brought the attittude when it came to the judges, especially Simon. Granted, Simon deserves just about anything that is thrown back at him, however I can see where he was coming from. Brenna fighting with him though, does not bring out the best in her. 2 1/2 stars.

Heather Cox - 22American Idol fanatic, and recovering from larengitis, Heather is hoping she can 'deliver' the song 'When You Tell me That You Love Me'. She doesn't. The show aired last ngiht, and I'm sure she's still waiting for the delivery truck. The first note ran through me like a child's shrill scream. After that the rest of the song was okay. She hit a really high note and I was impressed till she came off of it. Horrible, horrible. I'm not sure what's going on, but the women seems to be going from bad to worse. Simon says the song was forgettable, I disagree. I'll never forget how bad that song was. Personally, I'll be very surprised if she's around next week. 2 stars.

Melissa McGhee - 21Beauty Pagen alumni. Another country singer, tonight she sings Faith Hills, "When the Lights Go Down". First the good news, so many singers before her were terrible. Now the bad news, I wasn't bowled over by her performance at all. Simon should have said this song was forgettable. Not all of the notes seemed to have been hit, but not an all-together great song. It was okay. Just okay. 3 stars.

Lisa Tucker - 16Just to prove that I don't have to like the song being sung to like it, I found this song to be very well done. Not very often do I end up talking to the TV, but I found myself telling her 'good job' several times during her performance. She really hit the notes. I'll admit it was slightly rough when she first started out, but that was quickly over, and she was able to hold her notes. Not only that, but you could tell she was very comfortable singing and she was very sure of herself. Oddly enough, I was in totally agreement with Randy for once, he pretty much said the same thing I had just written in my note book. I had to look over my shoulder to make sure he was not reading my notes. She'll go far, 4 stars.

Kinnik Sky - 28Another great song to entertain us with. Well, that is great if you can sing the song, is Kinnik able to do that? Randy (copying Simon) gives her a 6. Now granted, I was not overly impressed with her presentation of the song, but as far as her singing of the song, I think she did a great job. There was one rough spot for me but quickly overcome. Usually I don't entirely disagree with Randy, but this time I have to strongly. I guess Paula agrees with me also, she was able to get Randy to change his vote to nearly a seven. That being said, Simon does make a great point in that she might be overshadowed by some of the younger singers considering she's 28. But for me, age does not matter, I'll give her 3 1/2 stars.

Katherine McPhee - 21McPhee does Babs' "Since I Fell For You", and does it well. Whereas Randy was daydreaming during an earlier song, I just found myself dreaming while listening to this song. What a marvalously great job. I could listen to her voice for a long time. Not only that, but great stage performance and tons of charisma. Win or lose, I think we'll see her put a record out.

Well, there you have it. My review of the American Idol women. Some were terrible, many were okay, several were fantastic. But the show is not over yet, and we have many more weeks to go. Who will be the next American Idol? Stay tuned....